Industrial developer Watson Land Co. said it has acquired a 32-acre parcel near the giant Kaiser Commerce Center in the Inland Empire for $7.3 million in what will be the company's first real estate development outside its traditional base in the South Bay. The San Bernardino County site with frontage along the 10 Freeway near Etiwanda Avenue can accommodate a combination of industrial, office, retail and hotel development.

Fueled by a supply of new office space, the vacancy rate in the western part of the Inland Empire increased from 25% in the first quarter of this year to 30% at the end of the second quarter. A survey of 31 buildings totaling 1.7 million square feet in Chino, Fontana, Montclair, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga and Upland by the Ontario office of Grubb & Ellis Commercial Brokerage Services revealed that vacant space totaled 513,228 square feet.

Home prices and sales in the Inland Empire remained strong in October, with the median sales price in Riverside County hitting a new high while San Bernardino County reported the second-largest monthly sales count ever. The median sales price of all homes sold in Riverside County rose 15.8% from the same month last year to $220,000, according to a report by DataQuick Information Systems Inc. October sales reached 4,718, up 17.7% year over year.

William had had enough. The 33-year-old apartment manager moved here from Los Angeles three months ago after discovering that his teen-age son was involved in a gang and was selling rock cocaine. But his hopes of a new life free of gangs and their influence were soon dispelled. "A tenant told me a guy asked her how much she'd charge if he could sell rock cocaine from her apartment.

Bill Sepe has gotten used to rejection. The 28-year-old Rancho Cucamonga native has put in nearly 200 unsuccessful offers since August on Inland Empire homes, varying from typical suburban ranches to classic craftsman homes. All this anguish comes in pursuit of a modest home in the exurb of San Bernardino County, the epicenter of the Southern California housing crash. Plummeting values here sparked a vicious wave of foreclosures. But it's precisely because prices fell so far here that Sepe can't buy a house now. In a sharp irony, many would-be homeowners in hard-hit markets can't compete with a flood of all-cash offers from investors, some backed by Wall Street war chests.

When the first Metrolink "Beach Train" rolled into town June 15, bringing 600 passengers from the Inland Empire to the city's beaches, restaurants and stores, organizers of the service couldn't have guessed how popular it would become. The number of excursions, first set at three, was expanded to seven during the summer, and now two more--one this month and one in October--are scheduled. The weekend day trips are in such demand that tickets regularly sell out.

A multiagency task force led by the U.S. Marshals Service arrested 187 fugitives from the Inland Empire in the last week, seizing firearms, marijuana, methamphetamine and cocaine, officials announced Friday. Authorities arrested fugitives wanted for drug possession, spousal battery and check forgery, officials said. "All of these individuals arrested, all 187, needed to be taken off the street," U.S. Marshal Adam Torres said. Authorities in San Bernardino and Riverside counties asked for assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service in November.

Developer Western Realco of Newport Beach will break ground in June on the latest in a series of huge warehouse buildings in and around Ontario, a $37-million, 1.1-million-square-foot speculative industrial park next to Ontario International Airport.

Two candidates were in a virtual tie with about half the votes counted Tuesday night in a special state Senate election in the Inland Empire. With 129 of 267 precincts reporting, rookie Assemblywoman Nell Soto, a Democrat from Pomona, had 10,175 votes, closely trailed by Republican businessman Robert Guzman of Fontana, who had 10,100 votes. Far behind the leaders was Democrat David R. Eshleman, the mayor of Fontana, with 2,799 votes.

An insurance company has filed a lawsuit against Carl's Jr. founder Carl N. Karcher and developer Maurice Monnig in the latest development in a series of suits involving a failed home-building project in the Inland Empire. Insurance Company of the West says in its suit, filed Dec. 29 in Orange County Superior Court, that it issued surety bonds guaranteeing performance and payment on some projects begun by Karcher and Monnig in the 1980s.